At the beginning of the month, the Dolphin team released a new version of their popular browser to the Play Store. It featured the normal UI and performance enhancements, but apparently that just wasn't good enough for the Dolphin crew. Today, they have released a public beta of Dolphin Browser that brings some pretty impressive numbers where HTML5 rendering speed is concerned:

Everyone's favorite third-party browser, Dolphin Browser HD, got a fairly major update today that not only brings some improved features, but also a name change (albeit a minor one). The browser formerly known as Dolphin Browser HD is now simply known as Dolphin Browser.

With this new name, comes some new features, including a cleaner, improved address bar that offers more search suggestions, a better interface for tablets, and "larger space for big thumbs and small keypads."

The update also brings the option to have a shortcut directly to Sonar on the homescreen, better bookmark management (easier deletion of bookmarks), and the always important "stability and performance" improvements.

Bookmark sync is one of the best features of the Android stock browser (and Chrome for ICS devices), but there's one major flaw with it: what if you don't use the stock browser (or you don't have ICW)? Well, if Dolphin's your default browser, we have good news - there's now an extension in the Chrome Web Store that allows Dolphin to sync all of your desktop bookmarks to your mobile, and vice-versa.

Dolphin Browser, a popular alternative to Android's stock internet app, gained one more awesome add-on recently, this time adding compatibility with Box, a secure cloud storage service, enabling users to save files from the web directly to their own cloud space.

The add-on not only allows users to upload files directly from webpages, but locally stored downloads, and webpages as well, making it easier than ever to sync your browser activities and content with Box for viewing or sharing later.

When I got my Galaxy Tab 10.1, one of the first apps I installed was Dolphin HD, and while it worked great, it still had that "phone" feel to it. Thankfully, the Dolphin Team has been hard at work prepping a version designed specifically for Android tablets (although, they're saying it's for "pads").

Since this is a beta version, it's clear that it's based off of Dolphin HD, as some of the menus still retain the phone vibe.

Users that have been testing out Dolphin Browser's newest private beta received a somewhat alarming email this morning: a message containing the email addresses of thousands of other beta testers. The email also included some rather interesting "keys," but it hasn't been determined what the keys represent at this point, or if they have anything to do with the leaked addresses.

If you're a part of the Dolphin Beta and you didn't receive this email, you need to be aware that your email address may have been leaked as well.

In a page taken directly from the Firefox playbook, the team behind Dolphin Browser have thrown the newest beta version of Dolphin HD into the market alongside the current stable version. This allows you to test out all of the upcoming features in Dolphin while they're still bleeding edge, without sacrificing the stability of the current version, as you can have them both installed at the same time.

I'm not entirely sure what they were thinking when they chose that font.

Update: It appears that I misread the Dolphin Blog the first go around - version 5 doesn't block in-browser ads, the in-app ads have been removed. I apologize for the misinformation.

The final version of Dolphin Browser HD 5 landed in the Android Market this morning, and it brings a whole slew of bug fixes and improvements along with it. Among the many improvements is one that most users will be quite happy about - Dolphin HD now blocks all Google Ads within web pages without the need for an add-on, making your browsing much simpler, as well as using less bandwidth Dolphin HD is now ad-free!

Last week we told you that the private beta for Dolphin Browser HD 5 had leaked, and I guess the Dolphin Team decided that since the cat was already out of the bag, they should go ahead and give the users what they want and officially make the beta public.

This version includes all of the same features as the private beta, plus some speed and stability optimizations. If you want to give this updated beta a shot, head over to the Dolphin Blog for download.

My current browser of choice, Dolphin HD, gained a little brother a few months ago, when Dolphin Mini (beta) was born. It was lighter, faster, and more elegant, yet still functional and robust. After over 50,000 downloads and weeks of testing, the Dolphin team just released v1.0 of the Mini, meaning it's officially out of beta and stable for everyday use.

Improvements in the latest version include:

UI upgrade ( menu & toolbox )

Add Bookmarks Label

Add on demand/ enable flash plugin

Data backup & restore

Quick access to clean data

If you haven't given Dolphin Mini a fair chance yet, I suggest you try it out by scanning the barcode below or clicking it if you're on your mobile: